


Home Again At Last

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Spoilers for Season Four, blood mention, injuries, season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 06:51:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14075349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: The day hardly felt like it could be real, Oswald feels as if they just survived the events of a horror film. He almost feels as if his life is too good to be true at the moment.





	Home Again At Last

They drove home in the car Oswald stole from the Dentist, the ride spent in relative silence. Oswald would chance a glance over towards Ed every few minutes, noticing him occasionally cringe in pain, or touch his jaw. He knew that the other man was in immense pain, it truly was a wonder he hadn’t passed out yet. He noticed as he drove that the sky was clear, the sun shining for the first time in months, possibly years, ironically despite the sun shining it seemed the streets were rather vacant. He laughed to himself realizing that citizens of Gotham tended to stray from the light, even for himself the light hurt his eyes. 

Oswald pulled into the drive, putting the car into park. They remained seated, both staring out the windshield up at the mansion. Oswald looked over at Ed one more time, this time Ed was staring right back at him. The look shared between them wasn’t tense or uneasy, there was something in those too dark brown eyes of his that conveyed wonder as if he still wasn’t sure that Oswald had saved his life. Funnily enough he still felt unsure he’d saved him. He half expected to wake back up in Arkham, to have Jerome dragging him by his feet into the mess hall to beat and torture him as a form of entertainment. He shook the thought from his head before getting out of the car, shivering as a gust of wind sent shivers down his spine. He pulled the ratty coat tighter around his body, the soaked material no longer doing the job of warming him up, he sighed realizing it’d be best to throw it in the trash along with his Arkham uniform. He went around to the passenger side, leg practically dragging behind him, he opened Ed’s door for him. The other man carefully climbed out of the car, nodding, and thanking him.

Without much thought Oswald wrapped his arm around Ed’s waist holding onto him as they made their way towards the house.

In his mind he thought about the horror movies they showed on TV. The movies he watched as a child when his mother worked night shifts at bars, the movies ending with the surviving boyfriend and girlfriend who would limp away from their living nightmare, always bloodied, and looking like an artistic disaster. He smiled to himself as he remembered those films, realizing that at the moment he was practically living one of them, miraculously they had survived the day, home before the sun even set.

When they reached the door, he remembered he no longer had a key, all his possessions still left behind at Arkham, before he could open his mouth to say anything Ed was fishing a key out of the inside of his jacket pocket. Oswald furrowed his brow looking at him in confusion as he watched the other man unlock the door pushing it open for him. Ed looked back towards him noting his baffled expression, a smile spreading across his blood-stained face.

“I always kept the spare key, besides you never asked for it back.”

Oswald rolled his eyes as he pushed past him making his way into the main hall, Ed following quietly closing the door behind them. He felt a sense of relief entering his home, their home. There was a feeling that they had not exactly won, but they had survived some circle of Hell. He rubbed his hands over his face still feeling as if everything had been a dream, one he wasn’t sure if he should describe as good or bad. 

“Hey buddy, I brought your dad home for you.”

Oswald lowered his hands looking over at Ed who no longer was looking at him. He looked to see Martin standing in the doorway staring up at him, tears filling his eyes. Oswald swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat as he turned towards the boy slowly approaching him, he held his arms out for him. A moment later and Martin was running towards him throwing himself into Oswald’s arms and hugging him tightly, fingers clutching at the back of the dirty pin-striped coat he wore. Tears rolled down Oswald’s cheeks as he held the boy close, fingers buried in dark curls.

“I missed you so much my boy, I’m so sorry. I never should have trusted Zsasz with you, I should have known.” He stopped himself from rambling, he placed his hands on Martin’s shoulders gently pushing him away an inch or so, he sniffled as he looked down at him. “The important thing is that you’re home again and I hope that you forgive me for what happened.” 

He watched as Martin rubbed at his own eyes with the back of his hand before beginning to write.

‘I forgive you, I know you didn’t mean for anything to happen to me.’ 

Oswald let out a sigh of relief, he placed a hand against his cheek as he smiled fondly down at him.

“I suppose I should actually thank you for saving him.” He said turning his attention back to Ed who stood watching the two of them.

“Hm, no there’s no need to thank me. I was just following orders and besides, Martin there is quite brilliant.”

He continued to look at Ed, trying to discern what he was thinking or feeling. For a moment he wondered if Martin’s eyes reminded him more of his father’s or Ed’s, he shook the thought of his head realizing it was ridiculous. 

Martin returned to writing on his note pad. ‘Are you hurt?’ 

Ed smiled, Oswald could tell he was in pain, but he knew him well enough to know he’d refuse to see anybody about it.

“No, nothing too bad. Like I told you before, I’m about as immortal as your dad there.” Ed bragged.

Oswald refrained from rolling his eyes or making a comment. Instead he turned his attention back to Martin.

“How about you go get cleaned up and we can have dinner after I help get Ed patched up.” 

The boy smiled nodding in response. Oswald watched as he turned and ran up the stairs, he noted he seemed to already know the home well enough despite the fact he’d only been inside it a few times. Once he felt he was out of earshot he found himself moving closer to Ed, the other man looking down at him curiously.

Oswald reached up placing a hand against the side of his neck, his other hand moving to rest against his jaw. “You need to go to a hospital.” He stated plainly.

“I’m fine.”

“Ed, you aren’t fine. Normally I might deal with you being stubborn, because normally you have something I can patch up at home or even in the car, but I can’t exactly diagnose if you’ll get infections from whatever he did to your mouth.” He said, fingers brushing against his jaw.

He knew he should feel disgusted as he touched dried blood that flaked under his touch, but he found himself more mesmerized by the other man’s sharp facial features. 

“Tomorrow. If I feel I absolutely need to see somebody, I’ll go first thing in the morning. I promise.” Ed stated quickly as he took a step back away from him.

Oswald let his hands drop back down to his sides suddenly feeling embarrassed. “Fine, I’ll drive you just to make sure you actually go. Now come on, I still need to clean you up.”

He was surprised when Ed took hold of his hand giving it a squeeze. “You are far too stubborn sometimes, is that a dad thing or just the usual?” He teased as he lead him towards the stairs, patiently waiting for Oswald to follow along noting the way he was dragging his leg more than normal.

“You’re still not funny, Ed.” He muttered wincing at the pain in his leg.

He felt slight annoyance as Ed watched him, waiting for an inevitable comment about his leg, about his limp and how he should let somebody check it out if they were going to be on the topic of self-care, but no comments came. Instead they managed to get into the master bathroom without much more conversation. Ed seated himself on the toilet and watched as Oswald went to the medicine cabinet grabbing out a bottle of pain killers, peroxide for his leg, and a wet cloth for the blood staining his face and neck. He returned to where Ed was seated, setting the supplies down on a nearby countertop. He picked up the cloth and began carefully wiping the blood from his face noting the slight swelling from the torture he’d endured earlier. He hummed to himself as he gingerly ran the cloth over full lips wiping away blood. Ed’s eyes were trained on him, lips parted as he watched him, his breathing changing slightly. Oswald felt his cheeks flush, he washed the blood from his cheeks and his jaw, fingers trembling as he gently dragged the wet cloth over his throat, Ed tilting his head back giving him easier access. Still intense brown eyes were on him.

“You’re shaking.” Ed commented taking hold of his wrist. Oswald swallowed hard.

“Cold, just these clothes are soaked from that stupid ice.” He responded, voice thick.

“Should probably change clothes then, I don’t want you getting sick.” He said releasing his wrist. Ed grabbed the front of the coat pushing it back over his shoulders. 

Oswald averted his eyes, he removed it the rest of the way tossing it to the floor along with his scarf. 

He startled when Ed placed a hand against his chest, fingers stroking against the worn fabric of his tunic. He looked down at his hand then up at him, Ed’s eyes were focused on the uniform.

“Always so ill fitted. I’ll admit though it gives you a certain….Look, but I do prefer seeing you in suits.” Ed said smiling as he looked up at him again.

“That makes two of us, I absolutely despise these clothes….I still need to see your leg by the way.” He said gesturing towards the tear in his pants surrounded by a pool of red turning the green fabric black.

Ed remained still for a moment before getting up. He kept his eyes trained on the floor as he removed his jacket, he slid off his suspenders, unbuckled his belt then unfastened his pants. Oswald looked away as he pushed his pants down to the floor letting them pool around his ankles, he stepped out of them kicking them to the side realizing he might need to just replace his outfit with something new, maybe something greener. He seated himself again, clearing his throat to let his friend know he could look again.

Oswald looked at him, he felt himself blushing as he looked at the other man’s long pale legs. He silently chastised himself for his wayward thoughts, he picked up the peroxide and a cotton ball. He carefully lowered himself to his knees cursing at the pain that shot through his leg. Carefully he began rubbing at the stab wound, it was small, too small for stitches to be needed, but he knew it had to hurt like Hell.

“You okay?” Ed asked, voice gruff.

He looked up at him, Ed’s cheeks tinted pink. He told himself it was just stains from where the blood had been before. “Yeah I’m, I’m fine. Just my leg. I think being frozen screwed with it.”

“I want to offer to help or to at least look at it, but I know you’ll say no.” 

Oswald smiled at him. “You do know me very well my friend.” He said as he returned to cleaning his wound.

“Well considering I did find you bleeding out in the woods and nursed you back to health, it’s a bad habit of mine to read you well.” There was a certain fondness in his voice.

Oswald carefully got to his feet, Ed reaching out to help him, standing with him. 

“Those were nice times, considering everything I was going through of course. God if it hadn’t been for you…” He trailed off realizing he would have died there, he never would have lived long enough to fall in love with him, or to realize so much about himself and the city he lived in.

Ed smiled sadly as he thought about it as well. “I couldn’t just leave you there, you made quite the impact on me back then.” 

He watched as Ed went to the bath tub, he knew what he was doing, and wanted to argue. Yet he still felt he was living in some type of fantastical dream, so he stood with his back against the counter and watched as Ed filled the tub with water that was hot, but not hot enough to burn the skin.

“So, I don’t impact you now?” He joked.

Ed looked back at him smiling, “Maybe or maybe just a different sort of impact.” 

Oswald felt his heart skip a beat, he wondered where they stood. He closed his eyes thinking about Ed’s argument from over a year ago, that love was about sacrificing your own happiness for somebody else’s. He swallowed hard as he realized once more that was what Ed had just done without issue. Tears ran down his cheeks, he knew it was almost foolish to hope. 

He was startled from his thoughts when he felt hands on his cheeks. He opened his eyes to see Ed staring down at him, thumbs brushing the tears from his skin. 

“Sorry.” Oswald muttered.

“Don’t apologize. You went through a lot with losing Martin, whatever they did to you in Arkham, and just everything. You’re more than allowed to cry.” He said speaking softly, still holding his face in his hands, their bodies close together. As if suddenly realizing their closeness Ed cleared his throat and stepped away from him. “The tub is ready, I’ll, I should probably change clothes then get started on dinner so everything is ready for you guys.” He said as he headed towards the door.

Oswald stepped towards him reaching out, “Ed, wait” 

The other man paused, a look in his eyes that looked quite familiar. Oswald carefully approached him, he remembered almost in another life approaching him like this, feeling scared out of his mind desperately needing to tell him words that felt like they were choking him, but Ed knew that already. He knew he loved him, the word ‘love’ felt one dimensional and weak. It didn’t cover what they shared, what they knew. He reached out a shaking hand placing it against Ed’s cheek, sighing in relief when he didn’t flinch away. Instead he stepped closer, leaning into his touch.

Wordlessly Oswald leaned up, his lips brushing against Ed’s for a moment before he settled back down onto his feet. Ed leaned down kissing him more properly, a hand cradling the back of his head, fingers curling in messy black hair. Oswald placed his hand against his chest, fingers curling against his shirt as they slowly kissed, the moment making him feel as if his heart would beat out of his chest. Before he knew it the moment ended. Ed smiled at him, a softness in his eyes as he stepped away from him.

He felt a sense of coldness when Ed left the bathroom, warmth blooming in his chest realizing that after his bath he would see him again. That soon enough he’d be in the dining room with Ed and Martin, that once again he had a family, one he knew he would keep this time.


End file.
